Here Are The Autopsies For The Victims Of The Las Vegas Mass Shooting

[spanone]

The Clark County, Nevada, coroner released autopsy reports earlier this month detailing the deaths of the 58 victims of the Las Vegas shooting on Oct. 1.

The documents provide a window into the true horror of the massacre ― and of gun violence more generally. Looking through that window is admittedly uncomfortable, but doing so gives us a rare opportunity to honestly confront the graphic reality of a mass shooting. Shying away from that truth has only helped perpetuate a status quo in which many people have decided there’s nothing we can do to limit either the scope or the frequency of these tragedies. If that’s the path we continue to take, we should at least be willing to face up to the raw brutality of the incidents that we have accepted as an unavoidable feature of American life.

A number of the reports were difficult to evaluate due to inconsistencies in measurement, terminology and methodology, issues likely complicated by the sheer number of cases and the many different medical examiners who conducted the examinations.

HuffPost consulted with Arthur Alphin, a ballistics expert who specializes in the forensics of gunshot wounds and who has testified in a number of multiple shooting cases, to get his thoughts on a few of the cases. His comments are included in a number of the summaries below.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/las-vegas-autopsy-documents_us_5a8234efe4b01467fcf08b97

[The_jackalope]

1. That is intensely painful to read. nt

[ProfessorGAC]

3. I Was About To Post The Exact Same Thing

Very hard to read those descriptions.

The one that really got to me was the woman who got hit in the head by a stable round and the commentary was to the effect "at least she died instantly". Then comment goes on to talk about the people who had no chance but lived long enough to know they were dying.

Just, yikes.

[spanone]

7. it's horrific... this should be read very s-l-o-w-l-y into the congressional record

[dalton99a]

2. Kick

[Justice]

4. Really painful to read. But important for people to understand the violence caused by these weapons

Hearing the cell phone video of those gunshots and seeing the kids hiding in their classrooms and reading these autopsy results should be required for every member of Congress.

[spanone]

8. agreed 100%

[CanonRay]

5. Depressing.

[Nevernose]

6. Is the cops autopsy in there?

Because at one point, one of the two judges involved had granted an injunction against releasing just his. Metro didn’t have standing, so they got the widow to ask, under the excuse of “it would just encourage cop killers.” To the best of my knowledge, he wasn’t in uniform; he’d been a concert goer.

Metro has fought tooth and claw to prevent any of the evidence being released, but the judge said “The public has a right to know.” In the next few weeks, we will also see (theoretically) the release of all the body cam footage, security videos, and crime scene photos. Hopefully that will put a stop on some of the ridiculous conspiracy theories. They’re fucking insulting.

[gvstn]

9. This whole incident was shamefully underrepoted.

58 people dead and it dropped of the news in 24 hours. I thought Sandy Hook was bad but this one was ridiculous. Just disgusting that the "MSM" can ignore the murder of 58 concert viewers. 58 people people died that day for going to a concert, shouldn't that be disturbing rather than accepted as normal?

[Nevernose]

10. The autopsy reports arent everything

My wife’s best friend had to go home and wash the blood and brains off her self. She and her husband had been rocking out when “fireworks” went off. Then the guy next to her — his head just exploded.

My son-in-law was working nearby and there was spotty communication. Last we’d heard he was boarding up the entrances of the Cirque du Soleil he works at. Absolute terror.

My daughter was working at the ER of a nearby hospital. She doesn’t normally work there (she picks and chooses according to her schedule), but ended up spending a full 24 hours trying to staunch the flow of blood and dealing with hundreds , maybe thousands, of terrified people, both the wounded and their families.

A former student and current friend of mine was killed. He has several siblings and cousins that still go to the school he coached basketball at. There’s eight or ten of them that occasionally break into tears or have panic attacks.

My student diagnosed with severe panic attacks and anxiety was finally coming to school on a regular basis, with the understanding that she could just come to my room and student aide when things were too much (I guess I have a “safe space”). Needless to say, she just dropped out of school. She’d been in the middle of the concert, practicing to get over her agoraphobia and fear of crowds.

Oh! That basketball coach I mentioned earlier? Here’s a picture of the tribute the students made:

https://www-reviewjournal-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.reviewjournal.com/crime/shootings/family-friends-make-hillside-memorial-for-las-vegas-shooting-victim/amp/?usqp=mq331AQECAEYAQ%3D%3D&_js_v=0.1

See those letters? The B is for the name of the school. Gets painted on the side of the mountain by seniors every year for fifty or sixty years now (pretty common in small Western towns). But the Q? That’s to memorialize one of the 1 October victims.

But that’s not the clincher. The whole thing involved hundreds of volunteers and was organized by a 19 year old girl, his childhood best friend. A week after she organized painting the Q, she shot herself — with the same gun her brother had used for his suicide a decade prior. Dumb fucking NRA-loving parents didn’t want to blame the gun. Stupid, selfish people.

I can think of another person who committed suicide in the weeks following, but I didn’t know them very well so I can’t share his story.

So there’s more to it than just these autopsy reports. There are literally thousands of people whose lives will never be the same, who will always carry scars both physical and mental.